As I stared unfocused at my notes the acronyms swam forward, their small-print meanings swam away, and I saw only acronyms.

And in the meaninglessness I suddenly saw meaning. It is this. The entire operation is up its own bottom, lost in committees, strategies and initiatives. Forget what these monstrous letters stand for. Grasp, instead, the essential incoherence.

AFPAK, ANCOP, ANDS, ANP, ANSF, APPS, ASNF, AAQ/FF, APP, CARD, CDC, CISCA, CISTICA, CJTF, CN, CNPA (ANP), COMISAF, CPCC, CSOFC, CSTC, ECC, EUPOL, FDD, FTD, GPI, HIG, HIGHK, ICPT, IDLG, IGLC, INFO-OPS, IRCTA, ISAF, IU, MCN, NDCS, NDS, OCCC, OEF, OMLET, OPDIESEL, PC, PRT, SITC, UNODC, UNPOL, TB . . .

You'll see lots of As there, sometimes standing for Afghanistan, but usually Assistance. The Fs are usually Force. Any contradiction between assistance and force is helpfully blurred by the reduction to acronyms. The infestation of Cs generally denotes Committee, Control or Command. The many Ds and Ns often stand for Drugs, National or Narcotics. Take the CJTF, which is the Criminal Justice Task Force, to be distinguished from the ANP (the Afghan National Police), partially overseen but not exactly trained by EUPOL (European Union Police something-or-other), who are not the same thing as bilateral police assistance, and who are assisted by the ASNF (the Afghan Special Narcotics Force), probably answerable to the MCN (Ministry of Counter-Narcotics) with help from the IU (Intelligence Unit), to be distinguished from SITC (the Special Intelligence and Counter Terrorism body) and operating according to the NDCS (National Drugs Control Strategy), a subset of the ANDS (Afghan National Development Strategy). If it weren't so tragic, this would be a comic novel by Evelyn Waugh.

Acronyms are not the only refuge. Others lullaby their brains to sleep swathed in the acrylic blankets of a new language now suffocating the ministries, missions and shirt-sleeved development-wallahs in shiny white Toyota 4x4s: a hideous hybrid of NGO-speak, Whitehall-chic, political pap and military jargon . . .

"Across the piece", "agent for change", "alternative livelihoods", "asymmetric means of operation", "capability milestones", "civilian surge", "conditionality", "demand- reduction", "drivers of radicalisation", "fixed-wing assets", "fledgeling capabilities", "injectors of risk", "kinetic situation", "licit livelihoods", "light footprint", "lily pads", "messaging campaign", "partnering- and-mentoring", "capacity-building", "strategic review", "reconciliation and reintegration", "rolling out a top-down approach", "shake -- clear -- hold -- build", "upskilling".

It's so, so important not to understand the meaning but to hear the noise. For the curious, however, "reconciliation and reintegration" means talking to the Taleban, "lily pads" means teaching by example, and an "injector of risk" is a penalty. A "kinetic situation" is a fight.

Language says so much. The acronyms and the buzz-phrases tell you of a crazy-paving of assistance and command, with aid money leaking through the cracks in billions. It tells of baffled expatriates and aid workers -- well-meaning, clever men and women -- in flight from reality. It tells of an international effort chasing its own tail.

Read it all. In my opinion it contains the "Zen" of great political analysis: direct pointing.